Shape memory alloys (SMA) have been applied to a wide variety of applications, in part, because of their ability to undergo a reversible phase transformation. It has been shown that the thermally induced martensitic transformation of indented SMA films allows for almost complete indent recovery on the nanoscale. If such a film were to be used as an information storage medium, erasing and rewriting information on the film would generally involve fast heating and cooling of the SMA, so that the temperature of the indents would move above and below the martensitic transformation temperature of the SMA. However, passive cooling would not likely achieve the desired temperature response. Further, such cooling would not allow for localized removal of stored information.
As such, it would be desirable to provide a high density information storage device having the capability for relatively rapid, localized heating and cooling.